Just a year after starting from scratch Queensland Trade Print has trebled its workforce, doubled its shifts and is investing in new equipment, Wayne Robinson asks how?
There may be some doom and gloom in some parts of the printing industry but it isn’t affecting the Sunshine Coast, or at least new venture Queensland Trade Print. Established just a year ago the company has since added seven staff to the three it began with, and has just moved to double shift work. Its client base has expanded rapidly, it now works for printers up and down the Queensland coast, but also has printers in Sydney and Melbourne availing themselves of its services.
The company caters for printing needs from business cards, letterheads, flyers, DL’s, advertising material, presentation folders and magazines right through to A2 posters, and provides a selection of quality materials and finishes.
Co-owner Amanda Williams says the company’s strategy of providing high quality work, on time, has resulted in the much better than anticipated figures for the first year. It set out a year ago with a clear plan for an environment of high automation, low labour and economies of scale.
Very few startup printing ventures ever buy all new equipment. Yet when accountant Williams (40) and her business partner former trade printing production manager Phil Gallagher( 43) began the new company 12 months ago, that is exactly what they did. Accountant Williams brings substantial business experience to the operation, and Gallagher has worked in trade printing operations management for many years.
Queensland Trade Printing was a total scratch company, it began life with no sales and an empty factory. But Williams and Gallagher knew what they wanted to do, and surveyed the best production value buys in new equipment on the market.
Williams says, “Speaking from an accountant’s point of view, high productivity makes lower margins possible which means higher sales and more consistent profit. The productivity and consistent quality of all new equipment far outbalances the repayments because machines are simply cheaper than wages. With all new equipment we hit profit by the fourth month, and have made a profit every month since. We will continue to make a small profit in the downturn because our fundamentals are right. We intend to have our own private recovery while everyone else is having their downturn.”
QTP chose to have A2 size equipment and minimum wages to be competitive in the short to medium run colour market that small printers needed to subcontract. Gallagher says, “We found the Sakurai 466SD from Pressnet was as affordable as many used models in other brands, and when we were offered a delayed payment plan, we took it. I have run it flat out ever since and it has performed as well as any brand and with very few service calls.”
In keeping with its strategy of high automation and quality the company opted for an Agfa Azura chemistry free CTP, which Gallagher describes as ‘simple and reliable’ and which feeds the Sakurai consistently high quality plates.
They decided on basic no-frills but productive finishing equipment, and paid no heed to brand names. Gallagher said. “We chose the Magna ZYS490 all-buckle folder from Pressnet which looks like and runs like a famous German brand.” The all-buckle Magna folding machine, with four buckles at the first station and two buckles at the second station, was considered the ideal choice for general commercial work. The Mitsubishi PLC-controlled machine has Japanese urethane inserts and a simple touch screen operator interface.
Pressnet supplied a Guangming SAFM800 celloglazer. Gallagher says, “It looks very like a famous American brand, probably built in the same Chinese factory I think. The Guangming has never had a service call. All brand s have performed as expected and I am happy with all our choices”. QTP also bought an Ausco 92 guillotine.
Trade printing is a competitive and crowded market, but Gallagher said it is a simple one to achieve success in:”Just get the price, turnaround and quality right first time, every time and the customers always come back like clockwork. Many of our clients are small printers with some digital and design. Increasingly they are discarding their older model one and two colour offset print equipment and simply subcontracting all offset work. They concentrate on digital and design where state-of-the-art technology is more affordable. With them, we form an efficient production chain” Gallagher says.
Williams is confident the next 12 months will see the company grow further, she says, “Our company structure and investment in brand new equipment enables us to provide very competitive pricing to our clients. And print itself is seen as a low cost marketing communication tool, especially when compared with television or radio, which I believe means that providing printers get it right they have a great offering to the market in difficult times.”
